Home Audio basics

[Peteyglad 2]

Ok, the wife wants to get a home theater in the near future. I used to work in a car audio shop that sold home audio as well, but I did not dabble in that at all. Right now what are some quality name brands that are not too much? Thankfully I can get quite a bit of different stuff near dealer cost so that helps. For reciever looking to stay below 750-800 MSRP, dvd player around 350-400 MSRP and who knows what on the speakers:)

I am looking at a 5.1 reciever

a 5 disk cd/dvd player

the speakers to go with it

At the moment I am looking at some Integra pieces and for spakers it is a toss up between Paradigm and Phase Tech with Phase Tech having the advantage right now.

So for right now what are some quality name brands?

[Peteyglad 2]

I am also looking at Denon pieces as well. They seem to be decent quality and price for their low-mid level stuff.

[bigger_george 2]

NAD, Pioneer for receivers. Are you plannin on building the speakers or just buying them pre-built?

[Peteyglad 2]

Just buying them pre built. I am a wussy like that:)

[bigger_george 2]

Maybe some Athena speakers. Don't worr, I wussed out too and bought a pair of Usher Audio speakers from out of country. I got a good deal on em cause they are manufactured in Taiwan; pretty much got em for invoice price which was still fairly expensive.

[Peteyglad 2]

I will have to check out Athena. I have never heard of them before, but that isn't too surprising. LOL.

[bigger_george 2]

There are lots of brands out there ranging from like 20 bucks to hundreds of thousands. The athena's are budget nice sounding speakers. They can be had for around 150 for a pair of em. The ones i got were around 1000 after shipping and they're still "budget" speakers

[Peteyglad 2]

That is a little out of my league at the moment. I have always know home stuff was a tad more than the car audio stuff

Also, I am trying to remember the name of a company that made media centers. I think it was Balle but I can't seem to find anything on them so it must be the rong name. Any guesses?

[Peteyglad 2]

I just went to the Atnea website and checked for dealers. I was kinda surprised Best Buy carries some of their product. Guess it will be easier than I thought to check them out, just a few miles away.

[bigger_george 2]

yep, best buy definitely carries them, but don't let that fool you, they are not crap like a lot of stuff they sell. If you don't like em, there is a budget brand called Streem speakers that have got some good reviews.

[Peteyglad 2]

sweet, thanks for the input. Looks like I hve some listening to do!

[sandt38 448]

7-800 offers alot of options on a reciever. I have owner Sony, Sony ES, Denon, Pioneer, and Pioneer Elite. I like the Elite the best.

Denons are very capable, but I find them entirely too forward in the upper frequencies. They tend to be a bit bright. They are very feature rich units though, and worthy of their awesome reputation. Most Denon owners are rabid fans. If I couldn't afford a 28-- series or better, I would shy away from them. You can find alot of them on e-bay and some discount websites (I have several with good referances if you would like). I wouldn't venture any further back than the 02 models though (for example, a 2802). If you don't like a forward system, this may not be the best way to go unless you have a fat wallet for something like B&W speakers. B&Ws do great on the denons because they are so laid back up top, but they remain accurate.

I prefer a slightly bright speaker combined with a laid back reciever myself. I find that the accuracy is much better on a set-up like that than the above situation... and at a greatly reduced cost .

The Pioneer Elite is what I am using right now (VSX45-TX). This unit is massively feature rich, and offers more controll than any sub $4000 reciever I have seen. You don't see this type of controll untill you step up to super high end recievers and pre-pro setups. The unit is warm and that allows it to be used with more common speakers on the market that tend toward the bright end of the spectrum.

Other units I considered when I went out this spring and bought my Elite were the Marantz lines, Rotel, Yamaha, Onkyo and Harmon Kardon.

The Yamaha and Onkyos were so bright I wanted to cry. The guy at the shop was like... "hear the detail?", I'm thinking, when did siblance become detail ?

Harmon Kardons just didn't impress me. I went to one shop where they were demoing the unit to me and it just cut off. I was like WTF? It was bright, but it was fully featured. Come to find out, after doing some research, the HK units are experiancing alot of problems the last 2 years. I have heard tales of there being so many sitting out for rebuilds that they cannot get them back to the consumer for a couple months... Not too good.

Rotel was great stuff, but a bit over your range. Good Rotels are starting at a shade over $2000.

Marantz deserve similar accolades. Very, very nice gear. The sound was one of the best I had auditioned, but they just weren't quite as feature rich as I liked.

If you get an opportunity to listen to these units and like one, let me know. I can share my experiances with you on most of these units. I spent almost a year looking and listening to about 50 differant units before I chose mine. I did a huge amount of research as well.

Speakers? If you want inexpensive speakers that are great units, just go buy some Paradigms. Don't waste any time. They are a bit bright, but a tiny bit of tweeking and you will be a happy camper. What great little units.

DVD? Look into Pioneer (or the Elites). Pioneer is offering some Multi-disc units that modders are tubing. Under $200 for a unit that plays any available format (yes, DVD-A and SACD too) that is so well built that modders are adding tube output stages and selling them for a grand!!! How can you go wrong? Best Buy even sells them, and when they go on sale they are rediculously priced at like $125... forget that, it is currently $99!!! here

I went with the Pioneer Elite DV45A. It has similar capabilities with more outbound processing that better suited my needs. MSRP of $700, but they can be had for under $400 if you know your dealer well enough

Good luck!!!

[Peteyglad 2]

Thanks for the input. That is agreat deal for a DVD player! I might have found what I want:) Looks like I have some more checking out to do!

[KickinAudio 5]

I used to install home audio for a while...

Denon for the amp bottom line.